Leena Yousefi and Trudy Hopman Named Among British Columbia’s Leading Family Lawyers in Doyle’s Guide 2026
Two YLaw lawyers recognized for the first time by one of Canada’s most respected peer-reviewed legal rankings
YLaw is proud to announce that founder and CEO Leena Yousefi and senior family lawyer Trudy Hopman have both been named as one of very few Recommended Family & Divorce Lawyers in British Columbia in the Doyle’s Guide 2026 rankings — the first time either lawyer has appeared in the publication.
Doyle’s Guide is one of the most credible legal ranking organizations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.
Unlike directories that accept paid placements or self-nominations, Doyle’s rankings are determined entirely through a rigorous peer-review process.
Lawyers are identified and nominated by other legal professionals in their field: the colleagues, mediators, and opposing counsel who have watched them work up close for years. Being named means the BC family law community itself has vouched for your expertise and results.
The 2026 Leading Family & Divorce Lawyers – British Columbia rankings were published May 15, 2026. They identify lawyers practicing across BC in family law, divorce, parenting, spousal support, and matrimonial matters.
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About Leena Yousefi
Leena Yousefi is the founder and CEO of YLaw and one of the most recognized family lawyers in Canadian legal history. She is a best-selling author and the creator of the Split App – the first AI generated app of its kind in the world, helping family law clients for free.
Leena Yousefi
She has been named one of Canada’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers by Canadian Lawyer Magazine, was chosen as one of the Top 50 Change Makers in Canada, and was named to Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40.
In 2020, she became the only family lawyer in the entire country to receive the prestigious Lexpert Rising Star Award — an award given to a select group of lawyers under 40 who demonstrate outstanding legal accomplishment and leadership nationally.
She has been voted the #1 top-rated Vancouver divorce lawyer in BC and has won more than 90% of her family law cases since founding YLaw in 2013.
Leena has been successful counsel on numerous precedent-setting cases at the BC Supreme Court and the BC Court of Appeal, cases that have changed the law in British Columbia and beyond.
In the landmark international child abduction case S.C. v H.S., Leena successfully argued that a father’s parental rights were violated when his daughter was brought to BC from Taiwan — a country that had not signed the Hague Convention. The case fell into a legal grey area: the child had lived in BC for five years and conventional treaty protections did not apply. Leena’s argument prevailed. The court confirmed the original Taiwanese custody ruling, the child was returned to her father, and the decision set an important precedent for how BC courts handle international child abduction involving non-Hague signatory countries.
In Storey v. Terry before the BC Court of Appeal, Leena and her colleague acted as successful counsel in a precedent-setting case involving a wife’s application for unequal division of family property and debt — a ruling that continues to inform how property division is decided in BC.
In another groundbreaking case, Leena secured the highest family law contempt award in the history of British Columbia — more than $116,000 in contempt fines plus special costs — against a party who had violated multiple court orders.
In Ad v. Ma, a complex high-net-worth matter, Leena successfully argued that the court impute income to a spouse — a successful dentist running two Lower Mainland practices — who was intentionally unemployed to reduce his financial obligations. The precedent set in that case now governs how courts address financial bad faith at separation.
Provincial and Supreme Court judges have commended Leena on her ability to present complex matters with clarity and precision. One judge praised her submissions as “thorough and clear.” Another thanked her for her “professionalism,” “able submissions,” and the way she conducted herself through acrimonious and demanding trials.
Leena’s work and life have been profiled on BBC, CBC News, the National Post, the Vancouver Sun, Canadian Lawyer Magazine, and Business in Vancouver. She has completed more than 7,000 hours of pro bono legal work and sponsors the Best Lawyering Award at the University of Victoria. She is an accredited mediator and a founding member of a profession-wide movement to make law more modern, more accessible, and more human.
About Trudy Hopman
Trudy Hopman is one of British Columbia’s most experienced and respected family lawyers.
Called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1991, Trudy holds her LLB from the University of British Columbia and has been practising family law for more than 33 years. She has guided hundreds of clients through separation, divorce, child custody, property division, high-conflict parenting matters, and complex estate litigation over the course of her career.
Trudy trained as a mediator early in her practice and has been a mediator for more than 20 years — long before mediation became as central to BC family law as it is today.
When British Columbia introduced Family Law Arbitration as a formal accredited process, Trudy was among the first practitioners in the province to become accredited as both a Family Law Arbitrator and a Parenting Coordinator — credentials she received through the Law Society of British Columbia in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Her mediation results are extraordinary. Trudy achieves a 99% settlement rate in mediation — a reflection of her ability to help parties reach durable agreements that hold, rather than resolutions that fall apart under pressure.
Trudy is particularly adept at cases involving complex financial issues — including high-net-worth asset division, business interests, pension valuations, and multi-party negotiations — as well as high-conflict parenting matters that require both legal mastery and genuine human sensitivity. She is known across BC’s legal community for her passionate, no-nonsense approach, her creative problem-solving, and her deeply held belief that people should shape the outcome of their disputes wherever possible.
Trudy is also a published legal author. She authored “Family Law Injunctive Relief” for the Continuing Legal Education Society of BC in 2022 and served as a consultant on the CLEBC Family Law Agreements Manual.
She is a member of the ADR Institute of Canada and BC Parenting Coordinators, and regularly handles matters across the province including the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, the Okanagan, the Interior, and the Kootenays, at no additional travel cost to clients.
About YLaw
YLaw is an award-winning law firm headquartered in Vancouver, BC, with additional offices in Langley and Chilliwack.
Founded in 2013 by Leena Yousefi, it is Canada’s largest female-owned and female-led law firm, with 60+ employees. YLaw has been named to the Globe and Mail’s Top 400 Fastest Growing Companies in Canada seven consecutive times and to the Canadian Business Top 500 Growth list.
YLaw serves clients across British Columbia in family law, employment law, immigration, estate litigation, and civil litigation. The firm is known for its team-based approach to every file, its settlement-first philosophy, its precedent-setting litigation record, and its innovative, modern workplace model.
Contact YLaw
If you are navigating a family law, employment law or civil litigation matter in British Columbia, speak with a peer-recognized lawyer who has the results to back it up.
Call YLaw at 604-974-9529 or get in touch.
Related Reading
- How to Choose a Family Lawyer in BC
- What Happens to Property at Divorce in BC
- How to Prove a Common-Law Relationship in BC
- Capital Gains Tax at Separation in BC
- Spousal Support and Tax in BC
- Meet the Full YLaw Team
- Doyle’s Guide 2026 – BC Family Lawyers
This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. It does not create a lawyer–client relationship with YLaw or any of its lawyers. Laws and policies change, and information here may not reflect the most current legal developments. For full details, please contact us to obtain advice about your specific situation.